No Ham Radio this weekend

I was looking for a nice restful weekend, and maybe a little 40M AM. The last three weeks have been tough, had a son get married in San Diego, then the next weekend was the 28th anniversary with the XYL, and last weekend was high school graduation for my daughter (the youngest of 3). For graduation we had guests, and that means clean, clean, clean...My sister in law is allergic to cats, so we had to go to great lengths to remove any lingering scent of little Vinnie. Vinnie even got shampooed.

So as this weekend approached, the XYL has an MRI, and X-rays pertaining to a lingering knee issue. So the Dr. says she has tears, and needs immediate surgery. That was Friday morning. As she rested Friday afternoon after surgery, I realize the AC is not working, and there is a smell in the house. It smelled like burning enamel...which it was. The ventilator motor was hot and stinking. I figured out that the motor starting capacitor is 'Open'. It was a 10uf 370 VAC oil can type. So there I am, looking for the 10uf oil cap in my Viking I...nope, not there, I put in dual 20uf / 500v electrolytics. After an exhaustive search I find a 10uf 250 vdc polypropylene unit....What the hell, the house nearly burned down already. So in it goes, and everything works fine. My plan is to get the real capacitor first thing Saturday.

So Saturday was a search for a stupid capacitor. Go to a local electrical supply house, and they don't sell capacitors. Go to an AC supply house, and they DO sell capacitors, but not to the general public. Looking over the guys head, I see exactly what I need...I go to a third place, way out of the way, and they have one..a round one, and mine was oval. I'm off to make the round one fit. Got it done, and AC seems fine.

Then comes Sunday, and the daughter says, "hey dad, I drove your car last night, and it started making a lot of noise". So I go drive it, and holy cow. I figure out that the left rear wheel has a lot of play, after lifting 3 good tires first. Under the gun, go to auto part store 1...they sell the hub and bearing separate. The bearing is pressed in too. Off to auto parts store 2, they got it as an assembly for $43 and change. I need a large socket though to get the old hub off. They have no idea what size. So I check for wifi with my iphone 3gs..none. So I turn on my data...I only got 30mb / month, so it stays off unless needed. I stumble on a forum and they say 29mm, and torqued to 173 pounds-feet. My torque wrench goes to 150...

So as the sun set, the job was done. I hear some SSB stations on 7160 declaring that in the Republic of Texas, 7160 is a DX frequency. So here I am venting into this laptop, drinking a Michelob, and just had to get the XYL an ice pack.

I'm looking forward to tomorrow going to work..maybe I can get some rest.

So as the sun set, the job was done. I hear some SSB stations on 7160 declaring that in the Republic of Texas, 7160 is a DX frequency. So here I am venting into this laptop, drinking a Michelob, and just had to get the XYL an ice pack.

Click to expand...

What you do is get something a bit stronger than Michelob then fire up 5kc away with an outboard slicer on the receiver and turn up the transmitter wick

Anyway, now you see why its been taking me so long to finnish up my radio projects. Don't even have up a low band antenna right now because I have so many other things going on at the moment. Seems like California Hammin or any Hammin keeps taking 2nd place.